Ozzy in S.A.: The ’92 comeback

Can’t find this online anywhere, so I thought I’d dredge up our coverage of the first of two sold-out shows Ozzy Osbourne did in October 1992, when he made his return from a 10-year ban.

Jim Beal Jr. and I did tag-team coverage that night. I caught most of the show, then rushed back to the office to write. He called in the last few songs.

Here’s the story:

Just Say OzzyS.A. Gives Osbourne raucous greeting

10/02/1992

By Robert Johnson and Jim Beal Jr.

Express-News Arts Writers

City fathers may not be overjoyed at the prospect of having Ozzy Osbourne back in their city limits for the first time in more than 10 years, but 11,000 Ozzy-starved fans nearly blew the roof off the Freeman Coliseum welcoming him back Thursday night.

Met with the enthusiasm usually reserved for a returning war hero, the 43-year-old British rocker was greeted by a deafening roar that at times threatened to drown out the show. The crowd was so hyped, it cheered an empty stage during the four minutes that elapsed between the house lights going out and Osbourne taking a San Antonio stage for the first time since Feb. 19, 1982.

What they saw was a man who though now leading a kinder, gentler life away from the stage, still doesn’t rate the Good Housekeeping seal for his work in the spotlights. Whether throwing buckets on water on first few rows (an Ozzy concert has a splash zone roughly equal to Shamu’s or Gallagher’s), mooning the crowd (twice) or sprinkling epithets into his stage patter, Osbourne remained as unrepentant as ever.

His presence was enough to overcome several flaws, most notable of which was the boomy sound that emphasized bass and bass drum at the expense of the other sonic components. When combined with the roar of the crowd, it was difficult at times to hear Osbourne at all. The effect was not unlike some of those early Beatles shows in which all that could be heard was the crowd screaming.

The other flaw was the 10-minute solo by guitarist Zakk Wylde and a separate solo by drummer Randy Castillo. They achieved their goal of giving Ozzy’s aging pipes a rest, but the shallow showmanhsip of the Wylde Thing got old quickly.

Osbourne, however, seemed none the worse for wear. Making few comments about his last San Antonio appearance (he did once refer to his extended absence, saying, “that was quite a price for a piss , man”), Osbourne opened with a souped-up version of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” Ripping off his shirt to expose his multitattooed chest, Osbourne plunged into a mixture of new tunes (“I Don’t Want to Change the World,” “Road to Nowhere”) and older favorites such as “Shot in the Dark” and “I Don’t Know” in the 15-song, 100-minute show.

The oldies were especially prominent at the end, with Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” and the solo hit “Bark at the Moon” closing the main set, with the crowd howling along. The two-song encore came back to the present for “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” but then went back into the past to retrieve Osbourne’s signature tune, “Crazy Train.”

Opening act Blind Melon and second-billed Alice in Chains suffered more from the murky sound than did Osbourne. Alice in Chains’ 45-minute set featured lead singer Layne Staley singing from his wheelchair, having broken his leg in a backstage accident in Oklahoma City Sept. 25. Wearing a cast on his left leg from ankle to knee, he sometimes stood to sing, propping himself up with a crutch. Regardless of his position, his band’s set was a muddy roar, though “Man in the Box” received a rousing response.

Blind Melon’s six-song, 30-minute set sounded nothing like the taut, supple sound the band created on its eponymous debut album. Instead, the band unintentionally came off as a grunge-rock quintet.